Grocery Mama

Save some money and make them yourself - English Muffins

 

(these are my homemade english muffins on the griddle. Yum!)

As I was reading some great blogs this week, I came across FrugallyBlonds blog and saw that she made her own english muffins!

They looked so good, I thought I'd give them a try.

I used the same recipe she recommended from allrecipes.

As with most breads, very few ingredients are involved. Some milk, flour, sugar, yeast and salt about round these out. Honestly, I never looked into making these, because I thought there was some amazing trick to making them. Turns out, the big difference is you cook them on the skillet!

My batch made 18. I thought they were super good! We've made breakfast sandwhiches with them and had some butter and jelly on them as well.

I will make these again for sure. I'm thinking they should freeze pretty easy.

The ingredient cost of these comes below 1.25 for 18. That's much less than the store bought ones! Regular price is $3.69 for 6. They are onsale this week at king soopers BOGO, so that comes to $1.88 for 6. Still, if you have some time, try these out. You'll be glad you did!

Caution - you will never want store bought again!

Don't let the thought of homemade tortillas scare you. They are very easy to make with only 5 simple ingredients. The taste of homemade tortillas far surpasses anything from the grocer's shelves. This tasty batch of twelve tortillas cost under $0.45 to make!

Here's the recipe:
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
6 Tbl lard (or shorting)
3/4 cup hot hot water

Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Cut in lard (I use my hand. Just mush it all in.)
Add in the water. Now here is the trick, make the water almost boiling. Stir it in with a spatula until it cools just a bit. Then get in there with one hand and knead it until it's a nice round shape.
Next important step - let your dough sit covered for AT LEAST an hour! If you can, for a bit more. It rolls out so much better.
Roll into 10 or 12 balls. Roll out as thin as you can get it, about 1/8'. Place on medium heated skillet. When the bubbles pop up just prick them with a fork. It should be a matter of seconds for them to cook on each side. Only turn once - tortilla should not look doughy.
Eat them up!

If you place them in a plastic back, they will keep for a few days. I eat them for breakfast with an egg white and fruit.

I will warn you, after one bite, you'll never want to buy these again. They are so worth the effort!

No Fail Pizza Dough

My favorite dough to make is the pizza dough. It's so easy and you can do almost anything with it.

First, here is my recipe:

1 pkg yest

1 tsp sugar

1 cup warm water

2 TBL oil

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water and add oil. Combine flour and salt. Pour yeast mixture over dry ingredients and mix. Let rest 5 minutes. Roll dough onto greased pizza pan. Add toppings. Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes.

And here is where you can go nuts. Add tomato sauce and topping with mozzerella cheese for a traditional pizza.

Instead of making one big pizza. Divide the dough and roll one for each family member. Top as each chooses.

For varity, try BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce and add chicken and chilis for toppings with a chedder/ montery jack mixture to top it off. Super yummy.

If you want to do pizza on the grill, grill the crust first until done. Grill toppings seperate. Then add all together and grill until cheese is melted.

I love homemade pizza. It tastes so great and costs very little to make. It is worth the extra time for sure!

Doughs not to be afraid of Part I: Foccacia

I was leaving my house yesterday to take my three kids for a walk before dinner. As we were leaving, I ran into a friend of ours walking her dog. We walked with her down the block and I mentioned that we had decided to go for a walk before dinner because I needed some time for the foccacia to rise.

She turned and looked at me, and exclaimed, "Foccacia, you make your own foccacia." I replied yes and that I make most of our breads.

Dough is relativly easy to make. Yes, a bit time consuming. But once you have it down, you'll never go back to store bought.

Also, with the rise of wheat prices, you'll notice a savings in your grocery bill. Last week, I decided to get lazy and bought two loaves of bread and rolls. The cost came to $12 for the three items. I'm sure I could have paid less if I bought the store bleached white bread, but there is hardly any nutrients in that.

Even if I make my own white bread, I know what goes in it. No addatives and only ingrediants I can pronounce. (ok that's for another post)

Here is my recipie for Foccocia:

1 tsp sugar

1 package yeast

1/3 cup warm water

2 cup flour

2 TBL olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp Italian seasoning or Fresh herbs

Preheat oven to 475. Dissolve sugar, yeast and water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine yeast and flour. Stir in enough water until flour is absorbed. Knead one minute. Place in oiled bowl and let rise 30 minutes. Deflate, knead and roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Place on greased baking sheet. Brush with oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and herbs.

Bake 10 minutes and that's it! Fococcia becomes hard too fast.

Enjoy!